Observation

= OBSERVATION: Problems with Data Collection =

**How do we know what they are thinking?**
Polls and surveys seem the most obvious solution; simply ask a question. However...there are some problems with collecting data through written polls and surveys. There is evidence from psychology that we tend to overestimate our strengths and underestimate our weaknesses. (Lagemaat p. 258) We also know that language can be powerful and persuasive. Loaded questions may sway a person to answer a question in a certain way.

This example from The Theory of Knowledge text illustrates how the phrasing of a question can clearly effect the results of a poll.

//Exercise:////Ch////oose a issue and try to create a neutral or unbiased question intended to discover an individual’s opinion about it.//

Observing Behavior:
Just how easy is it to interpret human behavior? We all understand what a smile means, but human beings have the ability to consciously deceive. Take the test below and see how skilled you are at spotting the fake smile.

click on the smile!

The Observer Effect
When a geologist studies rocks for example, the rocks are not affected by the presence of the scientist. However, human beings tend to behave very differently when they are aware that they are being watched. The “observer effect” asserts that the people around us shape our behavior. Being part of a study or test may make people more nervous, try to be more eloquent, etc. This idea is based on a sociological study that took place in the 1920s in Chicago, Illinois called the Hawthorne Effect.

//The Hawthorne Effect// //In the 1920s, at the enormous Western Electric Hawthorne Factory in Cicero outside Chicago, management began an experiment which was to improve the working life of millions and give rise to a phenomenon that anyone planning a psychology experiment would have to take into account in their design.// //Keen to improve productivity at a time when the telephone industry was growing and Western Electric was building the components for all the telephone exchanges in the United States, management decided to see whether working conditions affected production. But the initial 'illumination studies' were inconclusive; whether lighting was increased or decreased to no better than moonlight, productivity increased. __Whatever the intervention, it seemed to promote faster work.__// //Confused, management turned to economists from Harvard Business School to design a more complex study. So, in April 1927 five women were removed from the factory floor and put in a separate room - the relay assembly test room. For the next five years, as they assembled the complex relays they were minutely monitored. Their working conditions were regularly altered, but whether breaks were included or removed, their working day lengthened or shortened, their productivity continued to rise.// //The study improved working conditions throughout the factory, as breaks were introduced for all, but it also gave rise to a phenomenon known as __The Hawthorne Effect, which has to be taken into account in the design of any experiment - the mere fact that subjects know that they are being studied may alter their behaviour.__// (from BBC Radio: The Hawthorne Effect)

**curious? listen to the podcast below:**
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lv0wx



Are there any ways to avoid the “observer effect” when collecting data?